Profiling Evelyn Giles

A few days ago, I read a post called The Six Question Character Challenge. Basically, it’s a tag post where authors share a few insights into their characters by answering a series of questions from their character’s point of view.

Whilst this is a great post, it’s not something that I’m going to partake in (on this occasion at least), partly because some of the answers are likely to reveal some fairly big plot twists from The Bluebell Informant, which (as you might imagine) I’m fairly keen to avoid at this point.

That being said, there was something in this post that got me thinking. As one of the questions, the writer is required to give the character’s Myers-Briggs type. Now, for those of you who aren’t sure what that is, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is basically a questionnaire designed to group people into psychological preferences and make broad statements about how they perceive the world.

I was vaguely aware of it before, but had never actually done one before so (out of curiosity) I took a free version that I found online…

And results were surprisingly accurate.

Yes, I know what you are going to say, a lot of these things (like mentalism or mind-reading) are designed to be vague enough that they could apply to almost anyone if they thought about it in the right way. But the explanation of the results of this test weren’t just broad flicks of the brush – they were accurate down to even how I select people who I consider friends or how I weigh up arguments in my mind. Interestingly enough, the career paths that my type of personality tend to gravitate towards include writing, counselling, teaching and politics – explains a lot really, doesn’t it…?

Anyway – back to the point.

I was intrigued about what kind of results I would get if I tried to retake the test from the point of view of DS Giles. And the results are fairly interesting.

I won’t bore you with all the explanations, but I will pick out two or three sentences that particularly excited me. Why did they excite me? Because they tell me that the character I created was the one I intended…

Enjoy.

Detective Sergeant Evelyn Giles

Myers-Briggs Type: ISTJ

‘ISTJs are often called inspectors. They have a keen sense of right and wrong, especially in their area of interest and/or responsibility. They are noted for devotion to duty.’

‘As do other Introverted Thinkers, ISTJs often give the initial impression of being aloof and perhaps somewhat cold. Effusive expression of emotional warmth is not something that ISTJs do without considerable energy loss.’

‘ISTJs are easily frustrated by the inconsistencies of others, especially when the second parties don’t keep their commitments. But they usually keep their feelings to themselves unless they are asked. And when asked, they don’t mince words. Truth wins out over tact.’

So, now it’s over to you.

How does that make you feel about Evelyn Giles? Is she cold-hearted or just misunderstood? Would you want her backing you up when you were in trouble? Are you interested in taking a Myers-Briggs test yourself? What is your personality type and how accurate is it for you?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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